Government skullduggery mixes thrillingly with SF invention and eco-concerns in this speculative tale.
In Heaton’s SF thriller, sinister forces converge on an environmentalist who holds the key to a teleportation technology with troubling side effects.
This novel, the second in a series, takes place in an alternative 2009, in which a groundbreaking United States president is in office—not Barack Obama, but another Black man, Jamal Williams, who is tasked with cleaning up the mess of an unnamed previous administration whose invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan collapsed the international banking system. With intel indicating that Saudi Arabia’s oilfields are secretly running dry, Williams is one of numerous players who approach the high-profile, well-heeled eco-activist Uma Jakobsdóttir. Readers of the previous installment of this series will recall that she is the daughter of the late physicist who developed revolutionary teleportation technology (called “LEAP”) meant to replace fossil fuel-dependent transportation. The new tech had a troubling, unforeseen side effect: LEAP portals, combined with supercomputers, can copy organic matter at the atomic level, allowing users—presumably rich and powerful ones—to make living backup clones of themselves, becoming functionally immortal. Fearing a nightmarish future of “ ‘[s]oulless creatures feeding off discarded atoms like vampires with no memory of their sins,’ ” Uma, six years earlier, attempted to discredit LEAP as a hoax perpetrated by an airline mogul. But President Williams and others have grasped the truth: It actually works. Uma is pressured by the White House to roll out LEAP to combat carbon emissions; in the shadows, liberated suicide-bomber fanatics from Gitmo, treacherous Deep State forces, and an assassination plot rachet the tension high and hold the reader rapt. The machinations and motivations here are a bit murkier than one might prefer, but the extrapolations of untested, paradigm-shifting technology keep the pages turning. An epilogue offers a tantalizing taste of the next installment.
Government skullduggery mixes thrillingly with SF invention and eco-concerns in this speculative tale.Pub Date: July 25, 2023
ISBN: 978-0956172037
Page Count: 412
Publisher: Rookwood Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A ridiculous concept imbued with gravity, charm, humor, plausible cynicism, and pathos—and perhaps the merest touch of spite.
A Wallace & Gromit dream is more of a nightmare in this darkly farcical science fantasy in which the moon inexplicably becomes…well, not green, but decidedly dairy.
When the moon and every lunar sample on Earth transform into a cheese-like substance, it seems amusing at first, but the appearance of this newly organic, extremely unstable satellite has far-reaching, apocalyptic consequences. A variety of U.S. citizens—disappointed astronauts from newly cancelled lunar missions, scientists whose understanding of the universe has been entirely upended, writers frantically adapting their pitches, retirees at a rural diner finding solace in their friendship, a small church community looking for divine answers, bickering cheese-shop owners whose product gets both welcome and unwelcome attention, the ultra-wealthy owner of an aerospace company with a spectacularly self-involved agenda, bank executives seeking a financial angle, and government officials desperately scheduling press conferences—respond in ways grand and petty, generous and self-serving. Those responses can only escalate when a cheesy lunar fragment threatens to destroy all life on our planet. Scalzi’s premise is absurd, but it’s merely the pretext to take a multifaceted, satiric look at how Americans deal with large-scale crisis, something we’re abundantly and recently familiar with, and will no doubt experience again in the not-so-distant future. He writes of denial, conspiracy theories, anger directed at the wrong people, unscrupulous political machinations, and multiple attempts at profiting from the end of the world, for as long as it lasts. There are moments of unexpected kindness and generosity, too. Of course, Scalzi takes aim at his favorite corporate, social, and government targets, as well as at the cheap sentiment that crisis always seems to inspire (as exemplified by a catastrophic Saturday Night Live episode).
A ridiculous concept imbued with gravity, charm, humor, plausible cynicism, and pathos—and perhaps the merest touch of spite.Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780765389091
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.
A man walks out of a bar and his life becomes a kaleidoscope of altered states in this science-fiction thriller.
Crouch opens on a family in a warm, resonant domestic moment with three well-developed characters. At home in Chicago’s Logan Square, Jason Dessen dices an onion while his wife, Daniela, sips wine and chats on the phone. Their son, Charlie, an appealing 15-year-old, sketches on a pad. Still, an undertone of regret hovers over the couple, a preoccupation with roads not taken, a theme the book will literally explore, in multifarious ways. To start, both Jason and Daniela abandoned careers that might have soared, Jason as a physicist, Daniela as an artist. When Charlie was born, he suffered a major illness. Jason was forced to abandon promising research to teach undergraduates at a small college. Daniela turned from having gallery shows to teaching private art lessons to middle school students. On this bracing October evening, Jason visits a local bar to pay homage to Ryan Holder, a former college roommate who just received a major award for his work in neuroscience, an honor that rankles Jason, who, Ryan says, gave up on his career. Smarting from the comment, Jason suffers “a sucker punch” as he heads home that leaves him “standing on the precipice.” From behind Jason, a man with a “ghost white” face, “red, pursed lips," and "horrifying eyes” points a gun at Jason and forces him to drive an SUV, following preset navigational directions. At their destination, the abductor forces Jason to strip naked, beats him, then leads him into a vast, abandoned power plant. Here, Jason meets men and women who insist they want to help him. Attempting to escape, Jason opens a door that leads him into a series of dark, strange, yet eerily familiar encounters that sometimes strain credibility, especially in the tale's final moments.
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.Pub Date: July 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-90422-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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